THE FOUR GEORGES
was dead their sons and grandsons had built up the
factory system based on steam.
In spite of the extensive decentralization of the national
activities, London was pre-eminent to an extent unknown
before or since. It was the largest city in Western
Europe, and was estimated to contain about 700,000
inhabitants,1 while the population of the whole country
was some 6,5co,ooo.2 It is true that the proportion of
Londoners to the total population has since risen, but
the relative importance of the capital has declined.
Until the end of the eighteenth century there was no
other town of the first rank; York, Bristol, and Win-
chester were in decline, and Birmingham, Manchester,
and Liverpool were still in the early stages of develop-
ment. Mr. Roscoe estimated that in the seventies and
eighties Liverpool had 39,000 inhabitants, Birmingham
30,000, and Manchester no more than 22,000.3 The
predominance of the capital, however, did not rest upon
its size alone, but also upon its character. It was, of
course, continually being recruited from the country,
but it was an entity all the same. The old mediaeval
city had been a community of traders, and the London
that was to come was to be a mere agglomeration of
individuals with no common tie. In the eighteenth
century it was of a size that enabled its citizens to have
an identity of outlook, even if it were only that from
the greatest lord to the meanest beggar they thought
themselves infinitely superior to the rest of the inhabi-
tants of the country. "I will venture to say/' Dr.
Johnson asserted, "there is more learning and science
within the circumference of ten miles from where we
1 ef. Maitland, W.: History of London, Vol. II, p. 744.
* cf. Roscoe, E. S,; The English Scene in the Eighteenth Century, p. 275.
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